While this is an excellent idea in theory, is anyone else concerned that about the example concerning Le Pen? The idea that children in schools are being told not to trust posts shared by politicians opposed to the government should raise major red flags for anyone. Would this same initiative also include commesnts from Macron denouncing the yellow vest movement as politically expedient falsehoods?
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Teaching children healthy skepticism of any idea or information whose source is a professional politician — regardless of the who or what — seems incredibly wise and farsighted to me.
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France has long valued critical thinking, and I am glad that it continues to do so. Growing up in France, every week from the 6th grade through the 12th, we were given a weekly writing assignment, along these lines: We were handed a choice of two controversial written statements, for example "The beautiful is more useful than the useful," or "Nature is more important than nurture", plus a longer text to analyze and summarize. We had to pick one of the three, provide written arguments for and against the proposition, and end with our own analysis. EVERY WEEK FOR 6 YEARS. Oh, and there were no multiple choice questions, only open questions, because multiple choice restricts you to pre-established choices, which limits your ability to think for yourself.
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They are called "critical thinking skills" and are increasingly important in a digital age awash in information. The ability to decipher good data and news from bad, or even recognizing cable news media bias both left and right politically... Even understanding the difference between news and editorial content.... Is fundamental in society today.
Without critical thinking instruction, the public will continue to be easily misled.
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The Charlie Hebdo murders occurred in 2015, and the government actually DID something to address the root problem? Is that how it is supposed to work in a civilized country? Here in the US, or Republicans would just close all liberal political commentary magazine or require every reporter to be armed, with armed guards outside the door and snipers on the roof.
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Teachers and librarians have been teaching students to be critical of information long before the Internet, but the quantity, depth, and scope of questionable information that has penetrated every area of life is now staggering. U.S. educators are still trying, but we really have no idea how to scale up. The solution may require regulation in addition to education. The Europeans seem to be doing a bit better at this on both fronts.
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As far as I can tell the program is devoid of guide posts at least as reported
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I think it is a waste of money. It doesn't address the root of the problem - Internet allows people to be in an echo chamber which people believe to much more than official media. People believe the fake news because it confirms their point of view as the World works. Beside exaggeration is a subjective category. For example, some people think that the victim of sexual harassment exaggerate negativity of their experience, while the others think the victim's suffering is real. Same goes for police brutality. Because we don't have firm definitions that are agreed upon by all parties, there is room for interpretation of the events. It is true for internet, it is true for official media, it is true for politicians and for the ordinary folks.
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We would never be so progressive because it might cost Twitter/the economy money... Sad to say, the EU has taken the lead in all areas of privacy/internet information.
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On the news last night in Paris, there was a detailed report about the shooting in Strasbourg. Toward the end of the emission was segment about young people spreading the idea that it was fake news put out there to deflect from the gillet jaunes movement.
Two days ago, I read on the Pew Research website that French people have some of the highest levels of disdain for news media in the western world. At least that is what I gathered from their graphs and charts.
While this specific subject matter may not serve all aspects of the issues surrounding information and disinformation, it seems certainly a part of it.
This is well worth sharing indeed.
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"32 dead : blinded by the flag painted on his windshield, a Belgian supporter ploughs into the crowd".
That one was easy and part of the routine, Belgians blame French for their arrogance, French are making fun of Belgians for their alleged stupidity.
It's usually more tricky, with out of context phrases, conspirationnist theories assuming we're never told the truth, false equivalences, ultra low resolution zooms, edited videos .....
But can we really blame the People for losing faith in the Press and in their elected officials? It happens too often that French satirical newspapers, similar The Onion, publish an obviously fake news, which ends up after retweets and facebook shares in the mainstream media.
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Media literacy is not a novel concept. A host of wonderful nonprofits in the U.S. have been advocating for such programs in American schools for several decades. These programs include ALL media - from TV to the Internet to billboards. The primary method of teaching media literacy is exactly what the French are doing in this effort - "deconstructing" posts (or advertisements or op-ed pieces, whatever): What is the goal of this post/ad? Who is it aimed at? How does it make you feel? Is it accurate? (etc.)
The 2016 campaign cycle and the surreal reality that Trump has created with his twitter account are the latest - and perhaps the most obvious - reasons for requiring media literacy in all schools, K-12 and up. Without a well-informed citizenry, we have no democracy, according to Thomas Jefferson. Media literacy is crucial to an informed electorate.
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@Marie S
So happy to see another adult familiar with this approach. Based on the other comments do you think it is only in the Northwest that we have these programs?
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Media literacy is quickly rising to a skill that should directly follow the teaching of reading and literacy in general. It should be a mandatory unit of study, whether through ELA, social studies, or civics, in all U.S. public schools. If our citizens (and non-citizens) cannot tell the difference between credible information and propaganda—masquerading as credible information, as it always does—then our democracy will be permanently vulnerable.
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Not Donald J Trump’s. He can be very entertaining, especially his lies, but he also causes tremendous anxiety, and you will have fits of anger alternating with waves of despair.
@Pietro Allar
And in his wake also is an entourage of great deception and power. He may simply look like a fool, but he knows a lot of devious things. Never underestimate an adversary. We all need to learn the tell-tale signs of the 21st century con.
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I teach children in the UK a very similar programme to this one in France, and it is great to see this getting covered.
Children badly need critical thinking skills, rather than tools or aids, to approach these problems. I frequently find supposedly savvy digital native children without a clue or a care in the world about why a platform has been designed the way it has, why there is a difference between a search engine result and a trustworthy source, or why verification and reporting matter.
Adults frequently overestimate children's digital literacy capabilities, simply because they can use Snapchat. Anecdotally, most children vastly overestimate their own abilities too: the data we take suggests that children think that they are pretty info-literate already, despite their behaviour in class indicating otherwise.
I can teach a kid to spot fake news in five minutes. I cannot give a kid critical media skills that will influence the rest of his life in five minutes. Our current programme takes 12 hours of teaching, and that is still too little. This problem exists across generations, media (it is NOT just a digital problem), class, race, you name it. This should have been on the national curriculum in 1918, let alone in 2018.
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The inability to decipher false content among U.S. adults amazes me. Just "reading" is not enough. Reading and sourcing critically is a skill that needs to be augmented across generations in the population. My older generation seems particularly susceptible to propaganda even among those who ought to know better. This was particularly evident with the anti Hillary propaganda spread by bots and which is still making the rounds as a sign how awful all Dems are. When I point out facts, people immediately step back but this has been going on for years now. Why Trump's much reported malfeasance is not taken in amazes me.
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We have this here too, even at the elementary and middle school level. In our schools, the librarians help the kids work on digital and print media awareness. Our schools have research technology classes integrated into all their humanities lessons.
When I was in school we had the same but just with print and TV. It is part of the social studies curriculum. That was in an area fat outside of Seattle.
I mean France is still cooler that us but I thought I'd give props to our great school librarians and informarion science teachers!
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I think this is amazing: essentially, it's "digital awareness," or "reputation management for teens," both which are extremely useful and necessary for contemporary life.
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Interesting article, but I can't help but wonder about the actual utility of such instruction. Sure, it "can't hurt," but as some of the students themselves seem to note, they're unlikely to apply it when later engaged in their social media activities outside of school. I have kids of comparable (now slightly older) age and work often with college age kids. The fact is that most simply do not follow the "news" in any traditional sense, even via a quick daily scan of something as basic as the Google News home page. I am often shocked at how out-of-the-loop even very bright kids seems to be with regard to major goings-on in the world (other than a mostly superficial awareness via social-media).
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@Ed
I still remember the instruction I received in my rural high school. The teacher was conservative and the content was very much about alarmism by the left. The skills I learned were solid: look out for visuals that evoke emotion and music that stirs emotion without facts; if there are calls to action think about whether they are based on evidence. If they attack someone, is the attack substantive and related to actual job requirements? What constitutes a reliable news source, and how can you verify what you hear at an event like a protest? This was the pre-Google age. All those questions are valuable.
Of course as kids we scorned the lesson. Of course! These skills will show up when needed though.
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Which tweet should you trust? How about none of them?
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As the French led the way into this media-saturated world with Minitel, so now they do with literacy education. Every US school with a tech budget (I.e., every school) should dedicate funds to teaching about propaganda, journalism, monetization of their personal information, the brain changing impact of too much screen time, healthy media “diets” and more. The integration with civic journalism initiatives also will help them understand the reason for a Constituional protection of a free press and the vigilance required to keep the press and its internet age offspring responsible. Ask your school if they’re teaching it now or have plans to do so.
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